Cracked
by Miss Pontmercy
Summary: What could have happened as a result of all of Natalie's dangerous choices. AU. PLEASE review! WARNING: frightening images, mature themes, rape, drug use, and I might as well finally warn for swearing. Rated T but be careful.
1. Being Pissed Off

**Hey guys! I'm trying an AU take on Junkie Nat. I'm just shaking up from what I usually write, and I also wanted to give Dan some pay back for ignoring Natalie. Not that he really needs more to worry about, but... oh well. :) This is scary, but I hope you like it anyway.**

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Henry was tired. He was exhausted, and he was pissed off. The night before, he'd gone out at one in the morning to pick Natalie up- after she'd texted him, mind you- and received nothing but a "Go away, you're so fucking annoying." He found his girlfriend drunk and high and angry with him. When he finally dragged her out of the club, she told him she hated him.

He was so fucking done with this shit. He wasn't going to just fall at her feet whenever she asked him to, and then just ignore it when she said horrible things to him. Yeah, he knew she was going through a rough time right now, and that he shouldn't abandon her when she needed him right now, but enough was enough. If he was going to go out on the limb and sneak out of his house, risk getting caught by his parents, lose more sleep than he'd ever lost, and watch his grades slip percent after percent, he at least expected her to be _nice._

So, at midnight, when Henry was going to bed, he ignored a next from Natalie. 'Cam u comd ge8 me?" His stomach seemed to drop when he read that, and he even started to hate her. How could she let herself get so messed up? There must be a part of her who needed him, because she called for him night after night, despite treating him like shit when he showed up. Still, that part of her was selfish and cruel.

But he couldn't sleep. He lay in his bed, tossing and turning, replaying all of the scenes he'd witnessed in the past few weeks. Nat passed out in his car, Nat being harassed by older guys on the dance floor, Nat throwing up, Nat collapsing, Nat's glazed and tired look at school. Henry knew she wasn't right, it broke his heart.

When he thought about what her mom was going through, and how her dad hardly even asked how her school day was, let alone noticed what was going on _after_ school, it really made Henry pissed off. Not at her mom, really- she couldn't help it too much. Yeah, it sucked for Nat to know that her mom couldn't love her all the time, but that was just it- she _couldn't._ Her dad, on the other hand, just ignored her because it was the only thing he knew how to do. And that made Henry mad.

"Fuck this," Henry said, getting out of bed and already hating himself. He found his sweatshirt and put jeans on over his boxers and slipped into his sneakers. As quietly as he could, he picked up the car key (after so many nights like this, he'd taken his car key off the keychain with the rest of his keys, so as to not make any unnecessary jingling noises when sneaking out) and left the house. He was glad he and his mom's garage was filled with crap, and they parked their car in the driveway.

Without turning the lights on or slamming the door, Henry pulled away into the blackness of the night. It wasn't until he was around the corner that he shut his door properly and put his headlights on. To distract himself, he put on some Miles Davis and turned the volume up high. But he couldn't get over the guilty feeling he had. So he'd messed up on two counts. One: if he was going to give up on Natalie and not put up with her shit anymore, he'd bitterly failed in coming again tonight. He was so whipped. He couldn't stay away from her.

But that led to Number Two: if he was just going to go back to her anyway, why did he have to wait this long? Anything could have happened in two hours... What if...

He pressed the accelerator, glad almost no one was out on the highway at two in the morning.

Not even jazz could get his mind off Natalie. Seriously, ever since the sixth grade when he'd met her, he thought she was the coolest girl in the school. As he got older he realized she was more than that- she was the coolest girl _ever._ She was pretty, and smart, and seemed above everyone else. She didn't need to be obnoxious and flirty like the other girls, or giggle all the time, and he got the feeling she didn't talk about people behind their backs. She seemed... not nice, but good.

And then he got to know her for real this year, and she surpassed everything he'd imagined. She was amazing. She was the only girl he'd ever met- only _person,_rather- who he could debate music with, who could rival his knowledge. She was funny, and sarcastic, and had the same taste in movies, if not music. Like, what girl is totally ok with sitting through _Final Destination, Pulp Fiction, _and _Ocean's Eleven_ without once asking if he'd want to see _Legally Blond?_ He couldn't think of anything more he'd want more from her.

Except, like, for her to come back. And be his girlfriend again. Because, not the least of importance, he hadn't made out with her in weeks. Cause he wasn't gonna be the guy who does that kind of stuff with a girl when she's wasted- it's not cool. But seriously- Nat was somewhere far away, and this junkie party girl was in her place.

Finally, Henry made the last turn onto the street where the club where Nat frequented was... only he wasn't sure he was in the right place.

The street was lit as if it were daylight, and Henry blinked, trying to get a focus on what he was seeing. Flashing lights, blue and red...

An ambulance, squad cars, and various other lit vehicles were parked in the middle of the street. Henry's stomach dropped to the bottom of his feet.

_Natalie!_

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**Thoughts?**


	2. Emergency

**Thanks for the feedback guys! This chapter's short, but I didn't want to make a transition and have it be way to long. Anyway- read and review! :)**

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Henry pulled into an empty parking spot- another blessing of two in the morning traffic- and leaped out of the car, slamming the door behind him.

"What's happening?" he asked, running up to a man in jeans who looked like he wasn't busy ad wasn't part of the emergency crew. "Is someone hurt? Can I go into the club?" he asked.

"Kid, what are you doing out at two in the morning? You don't look old enough-"

"Is someone hurt?" Henry asked, noting that the man did not answer any of his questions.

But the man didn't have to answer. Into Henry's sight came several men holding a stretcher. Henry couldn't see what the men were wearing, or what they looked like, or anything other than the person in the stretcher.

Natalie was lying, strapped in, on the stretcher. Her bare arms and legs that were exposed by her skimpy outfit were covered in bruises, as well as several on her face. Then, one of the emergency men tossed a blanket on top of her to keep her warm. Or maybe because she was...

"_Natalie!"_ Henry screamed, running forward without thinking. Instantly the wind was knocked out of him as two men restrained him. He thrashed against them. "Let me _go!_" he grunted. "I have to get _through!"_

They were saying something to him, but he couldn't concentrate. Something about having to calm down, be relaxed, identify the body...

"The body?" Henry whispered, going still instantly and looking into the eyes of one of the men.

He shook his head quickly, as though clearing a thought. "Forgive me. The girl's body- you know her?"

"Is she alive? Please, tell me what happened!"

He sighed. "Someone called 911 to report screams from that alleyway there," he pointed into a dark cavern next to the club. "I've heard people talking, and figured out that she'd been dragged from the club by some jerk. She was raped and robbed... it's fucked up. She doesn't even look nineteen."

He continued prattling on about horrible things, not noticing how this was affecting the boy in front of him, who was white as a sheet and whose vision was swimming. Finally the man looked back up at Henry.

"You know her?"

Henry nodded slowly. "She's my girlfriend. I... came to pick her up," he swallowed back the tears for Natalie's pain and his self-hatred. He suppressed any feeling, letting himself remain numb while he walked away.

Henry walked up to a man who was doing paperwork from the ambulance.

"She is alive, isn't she?" he choked out, his eyes huge.

The man looked up at him. He nodded sadly. "It's horrible, isn't it?"

"What kind of bastard-"

"Can I help you?" the man asked brusquely, having business to attend to.

"Yes- I can identify her."

"Good. She didn't have anything on her- not a phone, not an id, real or fake... nothing. The guy really cleaned her out."

"Her name's Natalie Goodman," he said, then gave them her address and phone number and parents' names. The people would investigate more at the hospital, but they needed some information to start.

"Can I ride with you, in the ambulance?" Henry asked, knowing it was futile.

"No," the man said, but this time he looked kinder, seeming to empathize for Henry's pain.

"Where are you taking her?" Henry was remarkably calm and quiet about this.

The man told him the hospital's name, and then the ambulance got the ok to go to the hospital. Before it did, though, Henry got another look at Nat through the open doors of the emergency vehicle. She was hooked up to countless wires and machines already, her head lolling, bleeding, unconcious, black and blue...

He ran from the street and reached a patch of grass. Then he threw up. Then, with businesslike precision, he got into his car and started driving to the hospital.


	3. Waiting

Henry had been in the waiting room of the ER for about twenty minutes before Mr. Goodman ran into the ward.

Henry looked up, not sure whether he should be worried about what Mr. Goodman would say to him or not.

"Mr. Goodman... I-"

"Henry," he said, blinking. "Why are you here?"

"It's my fault." Henry dropped his head into his hands and quickly wiped the moisture from his eyes that had appeared there. "I was... to late. I came to take her home... but I was late, and then _this _happened."

"Oh my God," Dan said, and he dropped into a chair next to Henry, his hands shaking. Henry didn't know what else to say. He didn't want to cry in front of Nat's dad- that would be embarrassing. But he seemed dangerously close, and he didn't want to talk about Nat anymore. The two sat in silence until a nurse came into the waiting room.

"Daniel Goodman?" she asked, and Nat's dad stood up. She spoke quietly and intensely, but Henry could hear most of what she said.

"...lots of drugs in her system, she's getting her stomach pumped. She also has a concussion, several broken ribs, her left wrist is fractured, and some internal bleeding. She has severe bruising on her face, arms, and neck. We're doing what we can, and she's stable. She'll be kept sedated for a few days, but when she wakes up be prepared. She'll have mental scarring and emotional problems from an incident like this. Oftentimes when a stranger attacks a person, it can lead to paranoia and distrust..."

Henry stopped listening.

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It was a few hours later when Dan woke from his stupor. Thus far he'd been preoccupied, worrying about losing Natalie as well as losing Diana... _no._ He wouldn't lose either of them. He couldn't. But even thinking about losing Natalie was terrifying. The thought clutched at his heart. He'd been taking her for granted, he'd been a horrible father. And then this happened, like punishment. But why did Natalie have to be punished for his neglect? Why couldn't _he_ be punished?

But nevertheless, at around six in the morning, Dan shook his head and came back to reality. He turned to Henry, who was staring at a patch of stained wallpaper with a hypnotized look in his eyes.

"Hey," Dan said to the kid. "Call your mom."

"Huh?" Henry said, looking at Nat's dad.

"Your mom's gonna be up soon, and she's going to worry about you. I'm guessing she didn't know you were out."

"No, she didn't," Henry confessed, and then got up to call his mom. Mr. Goodman was right- he didn't want to scare his mom.

"Henry?" his mom answered, sounding worried already. Too late- he'd already scared her.

"Hey, mom. I'm at the hospital right now," he told her, and then quickly explained it wasn't he who was hurt.

"_Natalie?_" she exclaimed. "Is she ok?"

"No," Henry said bitterly. "She... she was..." He gathered up his strength so he could say it. "She was raped. And beaten. But she's... going to live."

He cringed right after he said it. Then he continued. "So I'm here at the hospital. She'll be sedated for awhile, but I wanna stay. At least until they figure out something permanent... can you call the school and tell them I won't be there today?"

"Of course," his mom said kindly. "I feel horrible. Where did it happen?"

"I don't really want to talk about it right now, mom," Henry said.

"Oh, sorry," she said. "I can stop by at my lunch break, ok? I love you, honey. This will work out."

"Thanks... I hope so. Love you too."

When he returned, he and Mr. Goodman sat in silence again. Henry could sense that he wanted to ask about what Nat had been doing out, but he wasn't ready it. And Henry wasn't ready to tell. He wouldn't be ready to talk about what happened until he was one hundred percent sure that Nat was going to be ok.

This was all his fault... if only he'd come when she asked him to, none of this would have happened...

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Hours later, Henry's mom called him on his cell phone. She was in the lobby of the hospital, and had brought something for him to eat. Henry wasn't hungry at all, but he went down anyway, telling his mom some more details about the prognosis. The broken bones, internal bleeding...

"She's still sedated, and they say she's going to be alright," Henry said. "I'm gonna stay awhile longer, though... but they said she won't wake up for a few days. I should be home this afternoon," he told his mom. He wasn't allowed to stay with Natalie anyway, just wait in the waiting room. Visiting hours were kind of a moot point anyway.

When he came back into the waiting room, Mr. Goodman's face was white.

"They caught somebody," he whispered, his voice hoarse. "The people at the club... witnesses and the police... they think they got the guy. But they'll need Natalie to identify him."

"Will she even remember?" Henry asked, wondering if this entire incident would be lost in the back of her mind, due to all the drugs.

"I have no idea," Dan said.

"So you want her to get close enough to see him?" Henry said angrily. "What do you think that will do to her if she _does_ remember? Nothing good! It's going to horrify her, and she's gonna be messed up for life! Why would anyone think it was a good idea to do this?"

"Henry, I don't think she'll have to be there with him... it'll be a picture or something-"

"You don't even care!" Henry exclaimed. "Do you even love her?"

Then all the sudden the blood ran out of him.

_Oh my God, _he thought. _Did I really just say that?_

"Oh God, Mr. Goodman- I- holy shit I'm such an idiot. I'm sorry- I'm freaking out here about her and I'm tired and I'm sorry-" he didn't want this guy to like, hate him. Yeah, he thought Nat's dad treated her with less than what she deserved, but he did not deserve to hear this. He loved her, Henry knew that.

Dan glared at Henry, and got up.

"I think you should go home now," he said bitterly.

Henry bit his lip. _I have as much right to stay here as anyone else, _he wanted to say, but stopped himself. Nat wasn't gonna wake up today and he needed sleep. She was going to be ok. He'd be back tomorrow, and maybe not say something idiotic to her dad.

_Fuck, fuck, fuck, _he thought to himself as he left the hospital. The world must hate him.

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**Thoughts?**


	4. Waking Up

**So**** I'm so sorry I haven't updated in FOREVER. I just started school again, and was busy acting and crazy stuff like that. So sorry guys!**

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Natalie pushed through the layers of fatigue and the heavy, warm weight that seemed to be pressed against her. Finally, she opened her eyes, expecting her bedroom. Instead she found herself in a steely room, attached to multiple machines, and was presently being stared at like she was some kind of animal in the zoo by her father.

"Fuck," she murmured, wondering what could have happened. Did she pass out? Almost OD? What the _fuck _did she get herself into now?

"Language," her dad said, but very gently. He gave a relieved laugh, and than _very_gently hugged her- in fact, he scarcely touched her at all. But even in the action of trying to lean forward to him, Nat felt pain. Her ribs ached when she breathed in, her head was throbbing, and she felt rotten all over.

"What happened?" she whispered, wetting her dry lips with her tongue. "I feel... like shit."

He bit his lip, obviously unsure of how much to tell her.

"Dad," she pressed. "What happened? How much trouble am I in?"

"None," he said, taken aback. "You didn't do anything," he finished, and then sighed. "Sweetheart, he took advantage of you, put something in your drink- you did nothing wrong. Nothing, that is, except be out of the house that late, which, young lady-"

"_What?"_ she gasped. _What happened to me? _she thought, her heart picking up speed. She could hear it reflected in the machines at her side, beeping wildly.

"Don't you remember?" her dad asked, his eyes growing worried.

"I remember..." she thought back to what she remembered. She recalled the last day at school- Henry not talking to her, and deciding to fuck it. She'd gone to a club and gotten really smashed... And she _did_ recall something: a guy dancing with her, and then getting to close. She remembered fear, panic, and then pain... but no details. "Oh shit," she said and started to shake. "I was..."

"Honey," her dad said, and embraced her with care. "I'm so, so sorry this happened to you. They caught the bastard who did it, don't you worry- you won't have to see him again, I don't think. Do you remember what he looked like?"

She shook her head- details were far past her. "Where's mom?" she asked.

"She's in another ward," her dad said.

Of course- she was still in the hospital. Duh. Still, Natalie gave her dad props for dragging himself away from her mom to come see _her._

"Henry was here an hour ago," her dad said. "But he was here all day and had to go home."

Henry came. So he didn't hate her. Or maybe he did, and he felt guilty. This was such a mess.

"'Kay," she whispered, exhausted. She didn't know how much more talking she could do.

"Go back to sleep," her dad said, and she obeyed.

* * *

Henry was wrong, Dan knew. He did care about Natalie. She meant so much to him. When he'd heard what happened, he felt panic like he'd only felt once before, with another child in an emergency room. The situation was far too familiar, and he felt exactly the same. The same helpless panic, the illness of knowing his child was in danger and he could do nothing, and the self-hatred, knowing his bad parenting had landed them there. The only difference was that someone had done this to Natalie. With... him, he was sick. No less devastating when he did not make it, but Dan did not feel the pull of revenge. Now, he wanted nothing more than to kill the man who'd done this to his daughter.

But Henry's words, though false, still held some water. They were a kind of awakening. He hadn't been giving her what she deserved. He'd been putting her on the back burner in favor of her mother, not giving her attention or the love she needed. That was hardly fair- she was his daughter, his only child. She deserved so much more than he'd been giving her. It just made him sick to hear this from some teenage kid.

No. What hurt was that this teenage kid knew what was going on with Nat. This teenage kid had been trying to help her. And he- her own father- hadn't seen what had been going on under his very own nose. He undoubtedly knew that if he'd opened his eyes, he would have seen that she was sneaking out at night. And he also did not doubt that some of the drugs in Natalie's system had been self-inflicted. The man who'd attacked her hadn't intoxicated her completely- she'd done some of the work all by herself.

He'd suspected she might have been doing drugs. But he'd closed his eyes, hoping the problem would go away. Now look at what happened.

At least she was awake.

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**I know that wasn't the best chapter, but at least it's up. Reviews? Thanks!**


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